This attorney, Cherie Beasley, and her law firm, Bay Area Criminal Lawyers, are completely liars and a total rip off. So after the initial consultation I have with them, with which they specify on their website that initial consultation is free, I decided to hire them. After going to the first court date, which turns out that it was postponed (and the lawyer did not have to anything but just get the notice), I found out that the attorney does not know anything and is very incapable of handling my case. Hence I decided not to hire her and discontinue the service. The bad service and the fact that the attorney does not know sh*t is the first reason NOT TO EVER HIRE ANYONE FROM BAY AREA CRIMINAL LAWYERS.

Here comes the second problem. I have paid her a retainer fee, which is the amount that should cover all the time that she spends on my case. She charges by the hour, hence I want to get the refund back for all the money she charged and not spent on the case. When I got the bill, I was shocked -- they claim that they had spent 8.6 hours on my case, and I will only get back less than a third of my retainer. HOLY MOLY! The only thing that I know she had worked on ( could I call that work on?) is the half hour she spent waiting for me at thr court place for the piece of paper saying that I have to come back for court again. She has not done Sh*t. All the other time she has just simply made up. They even counted the phone calls that I make in to ask them to send the bill. The most frustrating part it, she included the initial consultation and the follow up office consultation in the bill, which they claim to be free on the website. I am 100% sure everyone in my situation would be pissed, and what would all customers do? Call in to dispute and discuss the bill.

This is the third problem. They had an office manager send me the bill. (btw, the first bill that she sent me was someone else's, which I was very surprised since law firms should retain confidentiality of their customers). The office manager said she need to talk to the attorney, Ms Cherie Beasley, about the bill. A while later I received a phone call of a yelling Cherie Beasley, saying consistently over the phone that she had spent time waiting for me, blah blah blah blah, for more than 15 minutes. SERIOUSLY? An attorney yelling over the phone at her customer? I feel harrased! talking about giving my confidence in you dealing with my case? From that point on I am so glad that I made the right decision to stop hiring her ( remedy for my poor decision to hire her). I decide that there is no more point in talking to those guys anymore, since those guys are not sensible and reputable. So I hang up.

Here comes the fourth problem. Her boss, Mr David Cohen, called me and tried to "explain" to me about the bill. He told me he had already took out 3.5 hours from the bill before sending it out ( WHAT? THEY HAVE SPENT 11.5 HORUS ON MY CASE? WOW TALK ABOUT EFFICIENTY). Me, learning from my previous lessons from dealing with those hagglers and liars, asks him if the call will be charged to my bill. He says that the first 10 minutes is not going to be charged. I tried to tell him, point by point, that the bill is unreasonable; he cuts me off everytime with his own bullshit about how they had spent time on my case. I keep telling them that I appreciate the time they had worked on my case, and I just need prove to show that they had worked on my case. He finally agreed that he will send me the documents ( he originally wants to charge me for preparing those prove documents). I am still not very convinced -- and I mentioned that I might file a complaint against them. That is when he gets fishy and started to freak out a bit. He says if I file a complaint, they could not send me the refund, sicne they need the money to "deal with the complaint". Talk about fishyness. He is trying to voilate my rights to complain! He tried to make me agree on the phone that if they send in the refund of the 1/3 of the money, I will not complain. What the heck!

I am still waiting for their check. Lesson learnt: NEVER EVER TRUST BAY AREA CRIMINAL LAWYERS. They have an 800-xxx-xxxx no., and I should be smarter to know that there would be some fishness if they charge by the hour for cases that had not even been to trial. dealing with the criminal case is hard already ; dealing with the bullshit of these guys is even more frustrating. This is a painful painful experience; learn from me and decide smarter. Just don't ever use these guys.